The Club Shuffle

Wednesday, July 02, 2008 - 01:11 PM

What’s new? Well, a bunch of music venues are new – Drom, Le Poisson Rouge, the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, the High Line Ballroom. And there are new locations for some old ones – both Galapagos and the Issue Project Room are moving from their Brooklyn neighborhoods (Williamsburg and Gowanus, respectively) to DUMBO, where the Arts At St. Ann’s moved a few years back, and rumor has it that the Knitting Factory, a longtime center of Manhattan’s “downtown” scene, may actually make the move to Brooklyn as well. But really, what’s new? Clubs have always sprouted up, moved, changed hands, closed… the ones that had staying power were the exceptions, and even they could disappear (see CBGBs, or The Bottom Line).

Tell us: Do you think this apparent spate of club closings, openings, and moves is business as usual in NY? A normal reaction to the vagaries of the real estate market? Or is something genuinely afoot – and if so, what?

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John Schaefer has hosted Soundcheck since the show’s inception in 2002. He has also hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series New Sounds since 1982 (“The No. 1 radio show for the Global Village” – Billboard) and the New Sounds Live concert series since 1986.